Putin Declares Soldiers’ Deaths and Wounds Secret, in War and Peace

New York Times ^ | May 28, 2015 | By Andrew E. Kramer

[Brad from Tennessee]

MOSCOW — The deaths or wounds of Russian soldiers in “special operations” can be classified as military secrets, even in peacetime, President Vladimir V. Putin decreed on Thursday. The decree comes as Russia faces accusations that it is sending its soldiers clandestinely to fight in Ukraine, an allegation the Kremlin denies.

Mr. Putin’s decree amended a law that had let the military keep soldiers’ deaths or injuries secret only in times of war.

Mr. Putin has repeatedly insisted that Russian soldiers are not taking part in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where government forces and pro-Russian separatists keep fighting despite a cease-fire deal in February.

At home, Russia’s political opposition says that by refusing to acknowledge that its soldiers are in combat in Ukraine, the Russian military is unjustly denying them disability payments, and denying their relatives death benefits and other awards.

All the while, there are widespread indications of a rising casualty toll for Russian soldiers, including wounded ones showing up at hospitals, new graves appearing in cemeteries and testimony from relatives of the dead. . .

[ozzymandus]

The dead can’t talk, but I wonder what the wounded tell their families. Maybe they’re finished off and forgotten. Russia didn’t have much use for wounded soldiers in WW2.

[Brad from Tennessee]

[Russia didn’t have much use for wounded soldiers in WW2.]

Many of their repatriated POW’s were suspected of being politically contaminated by their contact with the West and were sent to the Gulag.

[ozzymandus]

POWs were considered traitors for surrendering.